22. The Nine-Headed Snake (1)
22. The Nine-Headed Snake (1)
"Move!"
Reni and I sprinted through the forest at full speed, trying to escape the breath's range.
But what mere human could outrun a wave of venom? We had no choice but to duck behind a massive boulder to avoid the breath's searing wave clawing at the backs of our heads.
My heart pounded like mad. An acrid stench invaded my nostrils. And the boulder grew smaller and smaller. It was the size of a house, which bought us some time, but I could already see the future—one minute from now, we'd melt right along with this rock. I wanted no part of that future. All I wanted was to take down that Hydra bastard and see the bottom of the dungeon.
And preferably escape while I was at it!
I wanted to reach the mainland, settle somewhere decent, live an ordinary life, get married... Anyway!
"Hey! Any bright ideas? At this rate we're both gonna turn into grape-flavored juice together!"
Right. This was no time for idle thoughts.
I pressed my hand against the boulder. There was only one thing I could do right now.
"Craft."
The melting rock reshaped into a well-hewn stone wall, shielding us with a broader surface. That should buy us a little more time than before. Without a word between us, we ran at full tilt before the wall could melt. The splashing poison pools underfoot were irritating, but this was no time to care.
Dying in a pool of poison or dying from a direct hit by the breath—same damn thing anyway.
"No ideas?! We can't just turn back like this!"
"I'm thinking!"
The breath that had been searing our backs was gradually weakening. A living creature—not some machine—couldn't possibly keep spewing that kind of vicious venom forever.
But...
"Hey! That bastard is following us! Do you have any ideas?!"
The ground shook. Its body was so massive that just dragging itself along sent monstrous tremors rippling outward, a sight that chilled me to the bone.
Outrunning it was impossible. Once I was certain of that conclusion, I spoke immediately to Reni, who was running at my side.
"Go back and bring Karina! I'll draw that thing away!"
"What? How?! What could you possibly do against something like that?!"
"I've got my ways, don't worry!"
I jabbed a finger in one direction. Toward my domain. My eyes met Reni's. She nodded, her expression dead serious.
Reni ran the way I pointed. The opposite direction from where I was headed.
"Over here, you snake bastard!"
I deliberately ran along an exposed path, shouting so it would not follow Reni. She should have disappeared into the trees by then. Once I was certain she had escaped, I plunged into a densely wooded area. Even something larger than an elephant couldn't ignore the trees completely. They would slow it down enough for me to widen the distance.
I knew this area's geography to some degree.
I decided to run for the place that had come to mind.
I retraced the hazy map in my head and sprinted for my target. The earth shook, the poison in the pools splashed as if a boulder had crashed into them, and an eerie cry mixed with occasional breath attacks threatened my life—but I was confident I wouldn't die.
A crisis on this level came knocking on my door whenever it got bored.
"Motherfucker. Should've just died quietly."
I finally arrived. The largest boulder in snake territory. I scrambled up fast, stood atop it, and glared down at the serpent charging toward me. Naturally, nine pairs of eyes locked onto mine.
Flee. Flee. Flee. Flee. Flee...
The primal fear of snakes carved into human DNA slithered into my ear, whispering terror.
A truly sweet, seductive proposal.
Run for your life like a frightened rabbit.
In that moment, I was a rabbit. Capable of nothing but fleeing.
...But I was human.
I could not keep running like a rabbit.
"...Let's do this."
Just like the first time I faced the Hydra, years ago.
I drove my shovel into the rock. The tip bit into the stone, scattering dust. In a low voice, I activated a skill.
"Craft."
The instant my words ended, my view shot upward. I had made a stone pillar roughly fifteen meters tall, somewhat unstable because of its narrow base, with a sharp horn jutting toward the Hydra. From a distance, it probably looked like an enormous pickaxe with only one side of its head. I stood at the top and glared down at the Hydra. It looked up at me on the pillar that had suddenly risen.
It was awfully high. One wrong step and I'd die from a fall, not from the snake.
"...Should I count it as a blessing that it became a zombie Hydra?"
It might sound like pointless nonsense, but it could also be the truth. A healthy Hydra was a creature of bottomless cunning.
Seven years ago, I clearly remembered it abandoning a bear cub it had killed right in front of me.
And the war with the bears that lasted nearly a year because of it.
And that recent attempt at sabotage.
That Hydra bastard knew how to profit without taking losses.
"Looking at it this way, zombification isn't so bad."
The Hydra advanced. Its massive body hurtled forward like a dump truck charging in. But this kind of thing was just one of countless incidents I'd been through on this island. I stepped onto the back of the pillar as it began to tilt like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and looked down at the Hydra drawing closer.
Nine pairs of eyes glared at me, standing atop the crumbling pillar. It seemed to pay no mind to the pillar itself. As if killing only me would suffice, true to zombie form, all nine heads surged forward with reckless hatred.
As the Hydra's heads drew visibly closer, I kicked off the rapidly tilting pillar and leaped.
A rough gust whipped just above my head, narrowly missing.
Had one of its heads just passed over me?
In my tilted field of vision, I caught the sight of the heavy stone pillar slamming down onto one of the Hydra's heads. The horn I'd shaped at the top pierced straight through the back of its neck.
The gamble paid off. Even a monster like that wouldn't be able to move immediately with its neck impaled.
I landed on the Hydra's back and slid across its slick hide like I was surfing. Reptilian skin was slimy enough that I made it to the ground safely. Not that that meant it was safe.
The moment I landed, I heard something slice through the air above me and rolled like a character in an action game. The ground shook. Poison from the pools erupted and splashed over my armor. I reflexively covered my face. Even at a glance, the armor had half melted. At that rate, the Hydra would not need to kill me; my body would melt first.
I dashed to a nearby tree, tore off a chunk of bark, and immediately used a skill.
"Repair."
The bark I was holding fused itself to my body. The shape had gotten much rougher, but I didn't have time to care. The tree, robbed of its protective layer, melted rapidly from the poison and toppled. I pulled my gaze away from the fallen tree and looked back at the Hydra.
Through my jagged field of vision, I saw the Hydra trying to turn its body while keeping its heads aimed at me. The stone pillar prevented it from turning, but it wouldn't hold for long.
I raised my gaze upward. I could see the pillar had pierced through the neck bones of the head in the center. At this level of damage, wouldn't the whole head just tear off if it struggled hard enough?
In the end, I'd only bought a very brief moment.
Was it time to run?
Since it was undead, once Karina arrived, we could end this easily. There was no real need to fight.
I turned and sprinted into the forest. From behind, the serpent's roar echoed. Did it still retain some trace of intelligence, even in its zombified state? Come to think of it, snakes had such slow blood circulation that the zombification might have progressed comparatively less. Not that it seemed capable of any proper thought anymore.
"Guess I shook off the pursuit, but how long until the two of them show up...?"
Back in the region filled with greenery, I looked toward home. Obviously, there was no way I could see my house, but once I was out of immediate danger, my thoughts inevitably turned there.
As expected, the outside was dangerous.
Once this was over, I would hole up at home for a few days. Life on an uninhabited island kept me busy, but sometimes I needed time to recover.
...Besides, once that snake was dead, the dungeon would be the only thing left.
"...Even as a zombie, its voice is still plenty loud."
The Hydra seemed determined to prove it was a zombie by creating horrifying noise pollution, and I covered my ears. At that rate, I couldn't even hide in peace.
...But did the sound seem a little too close?
It sounded as though it had come from directly behind me—
At that moment, my survival instinct—forcibly honed over ten years—shrieked an alarm.
I spun around immediately and stared back down the path I'd come running through.
"You've got to be kidding me."
A purple water cannon was flying at me.
I hurled myself sideways to dodge the breath crashing down on me. A searing wind scraped past my body.
Picking myself up, I clicked my tongue at the trail carved by the purple water cannon that had swept past me.
Everything the poison had touched was completely melted.
If that had hit, I'd be dead on the spot.
"Wow, I've lived through a lot, but this level of bullshit is a first..."
A single pair of eyes glared at me.
Yeah. Just one pair.
Shit, the head that got ripped off by the pillar came after me all by itself—what kind of insane situation was this?
Sure, snakes have their organs and everything crammed into their heads, but this crosses a line. Crosses a damn line!
How the hell was it even moving?
If its head had been severed, it should have died quietly! I had only called it a Hydra for convenience, yet it actually possessed that disgusting regenerative power.
Wasn't this too much?
...Hoo. That was no time to get worked up.
I took a deep breath. One, two. One, two...
I calmed my mind and fixed my glare on the snake, now noticeably slower than before. It still had some distance to cover. About thirty meters or so.
Glancing past it, the main body didn't seem to have located me yet.
I gritted my teeth and muttered, as always.
"...Come on, it's just one head. I can handle that."
What could a severed head possibly do?
"You were scary because you had nine heads! One head means you're small fry, you bastard!"
I tightened my grip on my shovel.